As I reflected on the gospel, the line that popped out to me was that of John stating that he was unworthy to tie the sandal strap of the one who will follow. This reflection lent itself to poetry rather than prose, which I present to you today.
John, O John – An Advent Poem (2014)
John, O John
miraculous conception
in a womb, people say
is as old as a tomb.
Your mother,
aged as Sarah,
who laughed at the news
of impending pregnancy,
from Abraham’s visitors,
only to find
within her womb,
withered and forlorn
as the desert wastes,
Isaac, her child,
taking up the divine dance.
So, too, your dwelling place,
cleared of the cobwebs of
age and disuse,
is now the womb
of a youth-filled maiden,
a place of warmth,
fertile, and nurturing.
John, O John
miraculous concepetion,
whom did you encounter
on your way to the womb?
Did you visit with the farmer,
Amos, called to the dance
from fields tilled and planted?
Or, the fiery Elijah,
in his chariot that lit up
ancient lives and ancient skies?
Was it the poetic Isaiah
whose eyes saw clearly future times
as if in the present?
Or the despondent Jeremiah,
whose own dance led him
to despair having ever been born?
Did you find Ezechial,
whose dance with God
was a hallucinogenic journey, or
within the barren womb
of trusting and wise Hannah,
Samuel, who would later anoint
the future kings of Israel?
John, O John,
miraculous conception,
at the sixth month of
your self-awareness,
familiar were you
with the Light present
in the heart of the
visiting unborn child,
an even more miraculous
conception than yours.
The very Light through
whom you came to
be in your mother’s womb;
the Light through whom
all humanity is born and
joins the eternal dance.
You leapt for joy and
dance in the womb
of your mother,
a dance that would, one
day, clear the way
for the Light of the world.
The very Light for whom
you prophesied you are
unworthy to tie
even a sandal strap,
will, one day,
wash the feet of those
He created,
Emmanuel has arrived.
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